Reliance Industries is 8th largest energy company globally

As many as 15 Indian energy companies made the ranks against 14 last year and Adani Power emerged the fastest growing energy company in Asia-Pacific region.Debjoy Sengupta | ET Bureau | September 08, 2016, 17:39 IST

Kolkata: Reliance Industries entered the Global Top 10 club with a ranking of 8 in the 2016 Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings. As many as 15 Indian energy companies made the ranks against 14 last year and Adani Power emerged the fastest growing energy company in Asia-Pacific region. Among big movers are Indian Oil Corp which jumped to 14th from 66th and HPCL to 48th from 133rd.

“It was India and Asia-Pacific companies that maintained and built on momentum, while other regions, such as North America, showed the distress of the oil price collapse,” said Robert Perkins, S&P Global Platts senior writer of oil news for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and co-author of the analysis “S&P Global Platts Top 250: Price Shakeout Sparks Industry Upheaval.”

The refining sector strengthened its standings in the 2016 roster, buoyed by improved margins. This propelled India’s Reliance Industries to make it global Top 10 debut. Among the world’s biggest movers - those rising by more than 50 positions from a year ago - Indian companies, here again got a share of the limelight. Refiners Indian Oil Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd moved to 14th from 66th and to 48thfrom 133rd respectively, lifted by access to cheaper crude.

The Platts Top 250 rankings reflect the financial performance of publicly traded energy companies with assets greater than U.S.$5 billion, and are based on a combination of asset value, revenue, profit and return on invested capital (ROIC) for the latest fiscal year (2015).

The biggest winners in the 2016 rankings, were independent power producers (IPPs) and the power and natural gas utility sector. Adani Power Ltd and IPP ranked at 250th not only made its debut but with a 3-year compound growth rate of 54.9% but was also the fastest growing energy company in Asia-Pacific and the second fastest in the world. The outright number IPPs in the roster jumped nearly 50% to the highest level since the Rankings began in 2002.

India was also the only prominent country for coal demand. Consumption rose nearly 5%, regaining its hare as the dominant fuel in the energy mix at 56%. Strong performance of the coal industry enabled the largest pure coal mining company in the world, Coal India, to hold its place at 38th in the Top 250 ranks.

Not only were Asia-Pacific companies’ headliners, snagging 19 of those top spots among fastest growing companies, dominated by power companies, but they were winners on several other fronts this year. The region contributed 13 more players in the overall global ranks this year than last, 17% more than in 2015 and taking the region to its highest representation since the Rankings began.

South Korea’s Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) was the surprise in the global Top 250 leader board. At 2nd place, not only was it in the Top 10, but the Top 5 and the only electric utility in the cherished upper ranks. A rise from 41st place in 2015, KEPCO now stands just behind Exxon, which held at #1 for the 12th consecutive year.

Exploration and production (E&P) companies took a hit in the rankings, taking only 16 positions, down from 42 a year ago. North American producers, which dominated in the shale and oil sands boom years, took the brunt of the damage. Some 24 U.S. and Canadian firms have dropped out of the rankings, the biggest sectoral correction since the rankings began. But it was U.S.-based E&P Antero Resources Corp. that topped the fastest growers with a 3-year compound growth rate of 81.1%.

Wins for the gas, nuclear and renewable sector largely came at the detriment of the global coal industry, which continued to witness significant structural and fundamental shifts over 2015 as suppliers, particularly in China and the U.S., worked to redress the overhang in supply.